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Welcome to Inside the Newsroom @ A2 Journal, a blog written by the newspaper's staff at A2 Journal, a new, weekly, community newspaper covering Ann Arbor. This blog is a place for members of the newspaper's staff to write their thoughts, observations, opinions and other informative pieces they put together while covering the rich history, interesting people, institutions and traditions that make Ann Arbor such a unique community.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

July 13 - Lisa's Musings (on dog fur) and Every Day Life

I have a house full of reporters coming here tomorrow and apparently, I should have started dealing with all the dog fur weeks ago.

When all of us settled on a date for this workshop, I wanted it to be in an informal setting -- complete with food and booze -- so everyone would learn something and have a good time, too.

I was hopeful that we'd all be able to sit on the three-season porch that was already sorta clean. But with temperatures expected in the high 80's combined with high humidity, I'm guessing everyone will want to huddle inside. In the air conditioning.

So this afternoon, after filing three stories, I started cleaning and dusting. Meanwhile, the dogs, sensing something different was going on, wanted to be in the middle of it. And, of course, to do their bit to be helpful.

While crawling on the carpet to scrape inches of hair from places I don't normally look at closely -- like in corners and under furniture, Ryan stomped all over me, trying to steal the wad of fur from my hand.

Each time I came up for air, Driver licked me in the face. I'm fair game while on the floor, so both of them wanted heads petted and tummy's rubbed.

This meant it took twice as long as it should have. Thanks, guys.

And the nanosecond I finished removing dog fur from a piece of cloth-covered furniture, there was a dog curled up on it. Even though they hadn't sat there in months.

And did I mention that dog hair has the half-life of uranium?

I put a table cloth on a short table in the living room and turned around to find Driver stretched out on top of it.

The moment all the dog toys were gathered up and in the box, out they came again and within minutes, the floor was relittered with them.

I think it's hopeless, but I'm trying anyway.

Maybe it will be cloudy tomorrow and people won't notice; I've already warned them not to wear dark-colored clothing.